A Father's Day Card

With my grandparent's recent visit, we did a little early celebration for Father's Day.  This way my grandpa would get a personal recognition we can't do on the actual Sunday in June.  Here's the details:

•  The clocks were stamped with my Numeral Clocks stamp using brown Archival Ink and them die cit with the coordinating Once Upon a Time die.  Each piece was edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
• The background circles were cut with the Once Upon a Time die from textured cardstock.  
• The patterned paper is from a very old pad of Colorbok paper.  I used a chevron stencil to create the brown and blue Ink Monoprint behind the clock cluster. 
• The sentiment was stamped with the same Close to My Heart Moonstruck ink using my Simon Says Stamp set Very Special.  

• On the inside I created this word art using text boxes in Word.  The circles are independent circular text boxes with no words inside.  The sentiment is a separate box with no border and no fill.  The font used is Algerian and I played with the color and size til it filled the smaller circle.  I've printed a couple of these and intended to make a few more cards.  

I've linked this card up over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday blog: Father's Day - Masculine and Word Art Wednesday's Challenge #135- Anything Goes.  Come on over to get inspired and join the fun.  The real Father's Day is coming soon.  Are your cards ready?

Creative Chemistry 102: Ink Monoprint

This technique is basically using a stencil as a stamp.  Be sure to use the reverse side of your stencil when doing this technique.  My stencil didn't have an orientation, so it didn't matter.  However, if you use one with word on it, you'll want to ink the reverse side in order to print the letters correctly.

The technique is simple- apply various colors of Distress ink directly onto the stencil.  This is accomplished by pressing the ink pad on the stencil over the craft mat.  Spritz the ink on the stencil to blend the ink before turning over onto your tag and pressing.  My first attempt here- I think I didn't use enough water so the ink beaded up before spreading onto the tag. Not the best print.

My second attempt was better (on the backside of the tag).  I used Faded Jeans, Broken China, an Vintage Photo ink for the monoprint.  After that ink was dry, I applied Vintage Photo, Frayed Burlap and Walnut Ink Distress inks with the Ink Blending tool.  I spritzed the final result to lighten some areas as a method to finish it off.

I'd like to try this with a different stencil, one with a little more detail.  I think the trick is to get the right liquid nature to the inks without being too fluid and squishing out the sides.